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The Tidewater accent is an older, sociolectal English accent of the American South, once widely spoken in the southeastern part of mainland Virginia: the Tidewater Region. The accent is mostly extinct now and separate from the very local accents heard elsewhere in the Chesapeake Bay area, such as the accents of nearby Tangier and Smith Islands.

History

This dialect of American English has evolved over a period of four hundred years from the English that was spoken by those who initially settled the area. Given that language is an entity that is constantly changing, it is accurate to say that the English of the colonists was quite different from any variety of English being spoken today. The colonists who initially settled the Tidewater area spoke a variety of English known as Early Modern English. (This is not to be confused with the form of English spoken today known as Modern English or Present-Day English, or with the English of Chaucer, which is Middle English.) Even within Early Modern English, there was immense variation among its speakers. This variation could have been due to several factors such as geographic location, social class, age, race, etc. within England itself

Phonology

One of the traditional features of Tidewater English is that it is non-rhotic. This may be heard in such words as Norfolk pronounced by many natives as /ˈnɔːfɪk/. Many visitors to the area may pronounce the city's name as /ˈnɜːrfoʊk/ or even /ˈnɜːrfɪk/, the "l" being silent. The latter of these two is even appearing in younger generations native to the Tidewater area.

Another traditional feature of the area is the use of /oʊ/ for /aʊ/. For example, words such as "house" and "about" may be heard in the Tidewater area as "həuse" and "abəut" respectively, especially among older speakers. Given that there are over 2.8 million people in the area, it is difficult to account for all variants. Also, the area is home to several large military bases such as Naval Station Norfolk, Little Creek Amphibious Base, Oceana Naval Station, and Dam Neck Naval Base. Since a significant portion of the area's inhabitants are actually natives of other areas, there is constant linguistic exposure to other dialects. This exposure could be a reason why the younger generations do not exhibit as many of the traditional variants. These variants can, however, still be found in the youth of the more rural areas of Tidewater as well as many of the adults throughout the Tidewater region.

Current projects

There is currently a linguistic survey and study occurring in the Tidewater region. A project devised by Old Dominion University Assistant Professor Dr. Bridget Anderson entitled Tidewater Voices: Conversations in Southeastern Virginia was initiated in late 2008. In collecting oral histories from natives of the area, this study offers insight to not only specific history of the region, but also to linguistic phonetic variants native to the area as well. This linguistic survey is the first of its kind in nearly forty years. The two variants being analyzed the most closely in this study are the /aʊ/ diphthong as in house or brown and post-vocalic r-lessness as in /ˈfɑːðə/ for /ˈfɑːðər/.

See also

• Hampton Roads
• Tidewater region of Virginia
• Smith Island, Maryland

Notes

1. Shores, David L. (2000). Tangier Island: place, people, and talk. Cranbury, New Jersey. Associated University Presses.
2. Lippi-Green, R. (1997). English with an Accent. New York, New York: Routledge.
3. Wolfram, W, & Schilling-Estes, N. (2006). American English. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing.
4. Wolfram (2006), p. 330
6. Batts, Denise (January 22, 2009). "ODU team records area's accent - English with 'deep roots'". hamptonroads.com. The Virginian Pilot. Retrieved November 15, 2014.
7. Watson, Denise (2009-01-22). "ODU team records area's accent - English with 'deep roots' | HamptonRoads.com | PilotOnline.com". HamptonRoads.com. Retrieved 2012-08-06.

References

• Lippi-Green, Rosina. (1997). English with an accent: Language, ideology, and discrimination in the United States. New York: Routedge.
• Shores, David L. (2000). Tangier Island: place, people, and talk. Cranbury, New Jersey. Associated University Presses.
• Wolfram, W, & Schilling-Estes, N. (2006). American English. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing.

External links

• Hamptonroads.com

• American English
• Culture of the Southern United States